Posted on 08/05/2017 7:41:35 PM PDT by ETL
“All I wanted was a snack," 19-year-old Hannah Dafferner told Fox 5 San Diego.
Dafferner first spotted the the spider, but didn't think it was real initially.
“It didn’t move at first. I thought my sister put a Halloween decoration there or something. Then it moved its leg. I screamed bloody murder."
The tarantula is described as being a three to four inch male.
After the initial shock, Hannah's father came to the rescue, using a pitcher to capture the spider.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Venom[edit]
Wolf spiders will inject venom if continually provoked. Symptoms of their venomous bite include swelling, mild pain, and itching.
If I recall correctly, it was somewhere in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. Either that or Upstate New York. In any case, I was a bit off on the size of the spiders. They were actually closer to 1 - 1.5 inches. I think someone at the time said they were called “Jumping Spiders”. There were other creatures there besides them, including some Daddy Long Legs. It was pretty shocking to turn on the light and see all of these things inside the tent clinging to the walls.
I’m an arachnophobe so a 1” spider would look like 3”s to me if surrounded by them in a tent. I’ve made my peace with spiders but that kind of proximity would tear it.
That said; I’ve camped on the ground with no tent in southern Arizona and lived in a cabin in SW New Mexico that was far from sealed so some upstate New York spiders probably wouldn’t scare me off. lol
Check out these incredible spider pics from a Google Images search. You will not believe the number of color variations.
Every year, the male tarantulas get to wandering around, sometimes in large groups, looking for the gals who hole up in the ground individually. A male will knock on her door to see if she wants to have some bug fun. Afterwards he runs, so he doesn’t get eaten. They eat mice, pack rats (not really rats), water bugs (aka roaches when they get inside the house) and baby rattlers among other things.
We get them on our driveway and our front steps, sometimes on the exterior walls hunting daddylonglegs and sometimes marching across the patio. We skoot them along with a large piece of cardboard. They can move pretty fast when they want to.
They are usually followed by the orange-bellied wasps, that fly close to the ground and low-level recon for tarantula holes. They paralyze-sting and then lay eggs on the tarantula and/or egg casing inside. I’ll leave it to your imagination what happens to the tarantula.
San Diego is crawling with tarantulas. I saw one once walking right down the sidewalk just east of downtown SD.
Great gif...Looking close, the guy has the spider tied to a string, he yanks it, the cat sees it, and bounces right into the string, which the cat probably thinks is it’s web then ricochets out of the rooms...What a hoot.
Great gif...Looking close, the guy has the spider tied to a string, he yanks it, the cat sees it, and bounces right into the string, which the cat probably thinks is it’s web then ricochets out of the rooms...What a hoot.
I had no idea having a 4 or 5 inch tarantula crawling around ones home was a fairly common occurrence in some parts of the country.
That’s it!
If that was in my kitchen, I’d lose my lunch!
Especially on the damned refrigerator!
Too bad that didn’t happen to the mouse who had grabbed my 3-tooth bridge months ago *before* he grabbed them. Found them 3 months later, btw, on the floor of the room in a distant corner, buried beneath a bunch of junk. I had left the bridge on the night table before going into the shower, so it definitely was a mouse who had taken them. That was a rough (embarrassing) 3 months going around without it.
My house rules too except.....they apply outside too.
Wolfgang could have had a poisonous bite, but I don’t think so. Black widows and brown recluses are the dangerous spiders around here in AZ.
Yet there are those here who say it's no big deal having a 4 or 5 inch tarantula climbing around the house. It's as common place to them as a mosquito. (they'd probably sh*t their pants if they actually had one in their kitchen).
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